Contemporary Classics 003: Burial ‘Untrue’ with guests Benji B and Blackdown

The third instalment of our Contemporary Classics series with Boiler Room looks back at one of the most important pieces of electronic music ever: Burial’s second studio album, released in 2007 on Kode9’s Hyperdub label.

Following Burial’s celebrated debut LP the year before, ‘Untrue.’ nailed an emotive take on the UK rave music that preoccupied Burial in his youth, integrating 2-step, jungle, and UK garage into South London’s fertile dubstep scene. Critics have variously interpreted the release as an elegy for the dissipated rave movement and a sullen audio portrait of London.

Considered a huge stylistic leap forward for the mid-2000s dubstep sound, and a resultant breakout moment for London’s new breed of producers, ‘Untrue.’ quickly garnered a reputation as an all-time great. It was ranked as Fact Mag’s #1 album of the 2000s; also hitting #3 in Resident Advisor’s list, #10 in The Guardian’s, and more recently #8 in German magazine Groove’s best electronic albums ever. It was even nominated for a Mercury Music Prize, leading to a dark campaign by the tabloid press to unmask the anonymous producer against his will, but bringing worldwide attention to an artist who is widely considered peerless in the last 10 years of electronic music.

Joining Boiler Room’s Gabriel Szatan for the evening with be special guests Benji B and Blackdown.

Having worked tirelessly since first falling in love with Londonʼs club culture at an early age, Benji B stands today as one of the UKʼs most respected broadcasters and DJs. Alongside his weekly BBC show on Radio 1, Benji has been running his club night Deviation in London for nearly a decade and is a host for Red Bull Music Academy lectures. He is widely respected all across the world as a conduit for contemporary electronic music of all stripes, and his deep connection to London makes him vital to frame the 2005-2008 time period from which Burial’s ‘Untrue.’ was gestated.

Our second guest will be London’s Blackdown (Martin Clark), a key figure in dubstep and grime since both genres heyday. As head of the Keysound Recordings record label, Clark is on a level with Hyperdub’s Kode 9 as one of the key actors in dubstep’s breakthrough phase. He was one of its most visible international supporters too, penning Pitchfork’s dubstep/grime column, helping contextualise the emergent sound with personal contacts and an encyclopaedic knowledge of the UK’s underground dance styles.

Over the years Martin is one of the few people to have met and interviewed Burial. You can read his 2006 interview with the one himself here.